Morgan Stanley brings back veteran dealmaker Michael Grimes, memo shows

Feb 9 (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley has brought back veteran dealmaker Michael Grimes as chairman of investment banking after his stint with the U.S. government, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Grimes, one of Wall Street’s most prominent dealmakers, recently served as a senior advisor at the Commerce Department after spending more than three decades at the investment bank. He was reportedly running the government’s venture arm which manages its stakes in private-sector projects.

He previously led several high-profile initial public offerings, including those of Meta and Uber, and rejoins the bank as it positions itself to capitalize on a flurry of bumper tech listings this year.

“Michael will continue to manage and build relationships with many of our most important global corporate, venture, private equity and sovereign clients,” the memo said. He will be based in Menlo Park, California.

His return is also expected to support the potential blockbuster listing of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Reuters reported in December that Morgan Stanley is emerging as a leading contender for a key role in SpaceX’s public offering.

Grimes has worked closely with Musk on deals involving Tesla’s IPO, where Morgan Stanley was one of the lead underwriters, and his $44 billion buyout of Twitter, now rebranded as X.

The space company last week acquired Musk’s artificial-intelligence startup, xAI, in a record-setting deal, coming ahead of its IPO this year that could value it at over $1.5 trillion.

Morgan Stanley posted a 47% jump in investment banking revenues in the fourth quarter, buoyed by a surge in dealmaking that is expected to continue through this year.

(Reporting by Utkarsh Shetti and Pragyan Kalita in Bengaluru, and Tatiana Bautzer in New York; Editing by Leroy Leo)